Fighting more than one war
by Snuffels'sFan
Summary: A war is raging in the real world. But inside Hogwarts castle walls, Lily Evans is fighting a war against the one person nobody would suspect...


DISCLAIMER: Everything belongs to JKR.

_**WARNING! THIS FIC CONTAINS SCENES OF VIOLENCE! **_

_FIGHTING MORE THAN ONE WAR_

_Chapter 1 _

Lily Evans blew her auburn locks out of her tired eyes. It was the first day after the Winter holidays and she was already exhausted. She lay her head in her hands, but then flinched as pain shot through her cheek. The Concealment Charm she had put on the bruise given to her yesterday didn't protect her from the pain. Sighing, she sat upright and tried to follow the lesson while she ignored the stares of the person in the last row.

When the bell rang, she hastily left the classroom, hurrying to dinner. She quickly squeezed herself in a seat between Emmaline Vance and Hestia Jones.

"Hey, girls!"

"Hey, Lily!" they greeted the Head Girl enthusiastically. At once, Lily was pulled into a conversation about the latest gossip. After she had finished eating, she headed towards the Headquarters, praying silently that James wasn't there yet.

It seemed that her prayers had been heard; their commom room was deserted and there was no noise to be heard from James's room. Gratefully, Lily entered her room, locking the door behind her.

She lifted the Concealment Charm on her face, eyeing the large bruise on her left cheek. Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes; she quickly closed them, not wanting to cry. She was strong.

She heaved a sigh and slid down the wall to the floor. If she could only stop James. Their relationship had begun so wonderfully: she had used to hate him, but he hadn't given up until she was his at the end of their sixth year. Their first months together had been dreamlike, to say the least. The only thing that had always bothered her was James's over-protective behaviour. Lily cringed as she remembered the first incident. It had been in October. They had been on a party which had taken place in the Ravenclaw's common room; James had caught her smoking marihuana and had thrown a fit.

"I've been doing this for two years now, James," she had told him. "I know how to handle it and that I shouldn't do it too often."

He had shouted his head off at her and then left. Lily had gone after him to talk to him. He, though, had proved incapable of carrying on a conversation with her.

"Oh, get out off it, will you?" she had snapped finally. "It's none of your business, alright? Quidditch is dangerous as well, and I'm not telling you to stop playing it, am I?"

"It's different," James stormed. "If something happens during a game, it's an accident. You, on the other side, are slowly killing yourself with that stuff!"

"Yeah, right," Lily had snorted.

"Nothing is right!" he had screamed. "I forbid you to do it!"

"Forbid me?" Lily had asked in a shrill voice, her temper getting the better of her. "You have no right to forbid me anything, you bloody bastard!"

Lily scrunched her eyes, trying to block out the memory of what had happened after she had said this, but it was no use, she couldn't forget it. She shivered as she remembered how her screams of pain had caught Filch's attention and how James had dragged her into a secret corridor by her hair, forcing her to muffle her neverending sobs in her robes.

The next day, he had begged for her forgiveness, groveling in front of her. She had forgiven him finally after he had sworn a dozen times that it would never happen again.

He had broken that promise many times.

Lily got up and walked over to the window to open it. She breathed in the cold winter air, which calmed her down. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear the knocking on her door and flinched when the person outside banged really hard on the old oak wood.

"LILY!"

She swallowed hard, walking over to the door and unlocking it.

"Why was your door locked?" James asked, entering her room without asking. "You know I don't like waiting outside."

"I...I don't know."

"You don't know I don't like waiting?" James asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I mean, I don't know why I locked the door, just out of habit I think," Lily quickly said.

"Oh, really?" James said, sauntering over to her. She hated when he stood right before her. He was one head taller than her and she always had to look up to him, which made her feel nearly as small as she felt when he hit her. "So there was no other guy visiting you?"

"What? No!"

"Why is the window open?"

"'Cause I needed some fresh air."

"You know what, Lily," James said casually, walking over to the chair before her desk, "I don't believe you. I think there _was _another guy visting you and the reason why it took you so long was that you had to get dressed and he had to escape through the window-"

"We're on the seventh floor," Lily said hastily. "If there was some other guy-which is not the case-and he had jumped out of the window, he wouldn't survive it!"

"Lily, Lily, Lily," James said slightly impatient, "how often must I tell you not to interrupt me? And how come you have the cheek to suggest that I'm stupid? I know that we're on the seventh floor-"

"I never suggested you were-"

"Lily, what did I just say about interrupting me?" he asked, standing up and walking up to her. "He could have used a broom to get away, you know."

Her palms were getting sweaty. He was trying to find a reason to punish her. He probably had had a bad day and now he was trying to vent it on her.

"But don't worry, darling," he said. "I believe you that there wasn't any other guy."

She felt herself relax.

"But," he continued, and her heart plummeted, "I'm quite annoyed with the way you've ignored me today."

"I didn't-"

"Of course you didn't. Yeah, come to think of it, that's the problem. You totally ignored me today and you didn't even write one bloody letter over the holidays. That's what earned you that bruise last night, remember, darling?" He ran his thumb over her cheek, making her wince.

"I was so tired today, James, I didn't mean to-"

"And what about interrupting me and calling me stupid? You didn't mean to do that, either, right?"

Lily swallowed.

James sighed, then said, "I'm afraid I didn't get the point through yesterday. Take those clothes off and lie down on the bed."

"James..."

"Do as you're told, Lily."

"Please, James... don't."

"Do I have to help you along?" He violently janked her school jumper over her head. Knowing that the inevitable was going to happen, no matter if she co-operated or not, she began to undress until she was only wearing her undergarments.

"Take them off as well," he said coldly. She gave him a pleading look, but he just crossed his arms and waited. Lily was no prude, not at all, but this was simply humiliating. She opened the clasp of her bra with shaking hands and slid her underpants off.

"Lie on the bed on your stomach," he ordered. Holding back tears, she complied. She heard how he undid the buckle of his belt and pulled it out of the loops of his school trousers, horror-struck.

"No, James," she begged. "No, please not... not the belt..."

"Shut up, Lily," he said harshly. "You wouldn't be in this postion if you had behaved like I want you to."

And then the belt met her skin. Lily gave a cry. She clenched her jaw as he continued to hit her on her thighs, buttocks and back. He'd 'only' done this twice before. Lily clutched the blanket and pressed her face into her pillow, silently begging him to stop. The trashing continued for several minutes. Finally, Lily thought she couldn't stand it anymore and cried out, "No more... please, James, no more!"

James paused and Lily thought she had convinced him. She felt him sit down on her bed and relaxed when he started stroking her hair. It was over.

"You know that I only do it because I love you," he said. "You behaviour is bad and you need someone to correct it, and I'm the only one who really can do that... you understand that, Lily, don't you?"

She didn't answer. Suddenly, the belt struck again, and she literally jumped.

"Don't you, Lily?"

SLAP!

"Don't you?"

"I do," she whispered.

"Since you're being so reasonable, you'll probably understand as well that if you can decide when the punishment ends, it's no punishment at all."

Lily's heart sank.

"But I'll be easy on you tonight," he said. "Only ten more strokes." He got up and the strokes began again. Lily whimpered. James applied the last stroke with particular force. She cried out, her hot tears seeping into the blanket. A few moments passed in silence, then she heard how James threw his belt onto the floor.

"Turn on your back."

"James..."

"Turn on your back, Lily!"

She had no choice but to obey, for he would start hitting her again if she didn't. She slowly turned, feeling the cool blankets against her hot, sore skin. Sighing, she clenched her jaw while James penetrated her limp form.

After all, what good would it do her to refuse him?

X

A/N: Thank you for reading, now please review!


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